


[Fandom stats] Sherlock and Elementary fandoms' early activity levels

by toastystats (destinationtoast)



Series: Fandom Stats [15]
Category: Elementary (TV), Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Cross-Posted on Tumblr, Fanwork Research & Reference Guides, Meta, Nonfiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-18
Updated: 2013-07-18
Packaged: 2019-09-20 00:05:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 436
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17011701
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/destinationtoast/pseuds/toastystats
Summary: How did the Sherlock and Elementary fanwork production compare for the first 9 months of each show?





	[Fandom stats] Sherlock and Elementary fandoms' early activity levels

**Author's Note:**

> Originally [posted on Tumblr](http://destinationtoast.tumblr.com/post/55852581016/penns-woods-has-done-some-interesting-analyses-of).

[](https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipNfIAP2nBhjNxva3s1oYWyv_nDghuCmNa8INN4wE96IKzjWYKtksd627_5d-6cisA/photo/AF1QipMj01xe2hVaKCMlF6VpkFWQtQsIdIAYBNWsQyQK?key=UzBPVlZCQ3p1S1VnWHVkM2tDR3lQNGs2VmRBM3BR)

[](https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipNfIAP2nBhjNxva3s1oYWyv_nDghuCmNa8INN4wE96IKzjWYKtksd627_5d-6cisA/photo/AF1QipN9ObcWWgU-WDeQ1FElIvZpoQKvXsh39adjCI89?key=UzBPVlZCQ3p1S1VnWHVkM2tDR3lQNGs2VmRBM3BR)

[Penns-woods](http://penns-woods.tumblr.com/) has done some [interesting analyses](http://pennswoods.livejournal.com/551390.html) of the Sherlock & Elementary fandoms, and has started/participated in some [great](http://pennswoods.livejournal.com/549154.html) [discussions](http://penns-woods.tumblr.com/post/55202113500/its-elementary-sherlock) about why Sherlock fans might be producing more fanfic than Elementary fans.

Penn and I discussed the results some, and I decided to start digging into the first months of both fandoms on AO3 in more detail.  (I'm not looking at FFN, at least for now, because the search function is much less useful over there, and all of this is therefore much harder to figure out -- but check out Penn's posts for some hints of differences between the two.)

In Figure 1, I looked at the raw numbers of fanfic produced on AO3 in each of the fandoms during the first 9 months after both shows' initial airdates.  (So, for instance, month 1 on the chart corresponds to Aug 2010 for  _Sherlock_ and Oct 2012 for  _Elementary._ )  Although Sherlock outstrips Elementary substantially, Elementary doesn't come in so far behind  **\-- In raw numbers, Elementary produced almost 1/4 as many fanfics as Sherlock, in the first 9 months of each.** (489 / 2011 = 24%)

However, the number of fanworks being produced on AO3 had skyrocketed in the interim between when Sherlock first aired and when Elementary did.  So producing 50 fics in a month didn't mean the same thing in mid 2010 as late 2012.  In Fig 2, I normalized both sets of numbers -- dividing by the overall number of works produced on AO3 in each month.  This gives a sense of the level of activity in each fandom relative to the overall level of fannish activity.   **Normalized, Elementary was only 6% as active as Sherlock on AO3 during the first 9 months after initial airdate.** (Elementary made up 0.17% of AO3 activity in Sept 2012-June 2013; Sherlock made up 2.82% of AO3 activity in July 2010-April 2011; 0.00171 / 0.0282 = 0.061) 

 **Note: I love both these shows and fandoms, even if I'm mostly active in the Sherlock fandom.**   I know some stupid Sherlock fans harshed some Elementary fans' squee, but that ain't me.  There's a lot of good, thoughtful discussion (at the links above and undoubtedly elsewhere -- feel free to rec me links) about why these differences might exist.  Factors that may contribute include the roles that slash and shipping play in fandom, especially on AO3; the fact that Elementary does a lot of things right that people might otherwise want to fix; the fact that Elementary is a rare show with a male and female lead that are platonic friends without sexual overtones; the different show formats; and more.    More thoughts welcome!

**Author's Note:**

> Comments welcome, but I’m in the middle of a massive fandom stats backup due to Tumblr purge, so I may be slow to respond.


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